Fayette State Park

Our extended family camps here every year. It has something for all of us.

Pros: well presented historic site and beautiful uncrowded sandy beach each a short walk from campground. Sunset over the lake every night. Nice short hikes. Boat launch and marina. Ice cream available at the visitors center. Clean restrooms and showers.

Note: The park is a long drive down the Garden peninsula which makes it harder to visit the rest of the UP. Taquamanon, Indian Lake and Munising City campgrounds are more convenient.

Cons: too few showers for the number of sites. Lakeshore by the campground is rocky. Dirt and grass sites — some tree lined and hard to back into and get level.

Several flat sites, many pull are thru, a proper 30A pedestal at back-in site 43, easy trail-walk to Fayette Beach from site, newer & CLEAN bathrooms (flush toilets and new Kohler sinks!), private hot-water showers. Fayette is a beautiful UP State Park with well-mapped trails thru a forest of mature deciduous and conifer trees. The highlight being the outdoor “museum” of buildings and artifacts from the 1800s when Fayette was a thriving community of working families (many Europeans immigrated to build a new life here) that processed iron ore into ingots for America’s industrial manufacturing. Historic Fayette State Park has a visitor center. Courteous and informed (and available) State Park Rangers. Dump and Water available near Park Entrance. “Away from it all”, our 3 night stay delivered. No T-Mobile cellphone signal. The park’s available ($ n/c) wi-fi connected to my iPhone13, but not to our MacBook, nor to an iPhone 11.

I have camped here three times in 42 years - 1960 as kid, 1980 as a young parent and this time as a seasoned citizen! From the 1960 when the park was newly taken over land by the State of Michigan might have been a grassy wet field but that was NOT the case in 1980 and 2022. The sites might be a bit small but we had site 30 which is a pull thru. We made adjustments for tree in order to be able to open our awning. Other than that the showers were super clean and the camp was tidy. My only complaint would be that the loops could have been marked, The only way you know what site you are on is by the electric box.

The ghost town of Fayette is a historic site and worth visiting. I would stay again.

Pros:
-if you like remote, this is pretty out there
-beautiful scenery
-walkable restaurant near by
-less crowded than other campgrounds
-less family and party campers
-new shower and bathroom facilities

Cons:
-very little cell service. Like…every 2 hours maybe able to send a text message
-I didn’t mind it but the sites weren’t all level and mostly grass or dirt

Overall:
Really enjoyed my time here. Not for someone who needs to work remotely but the walkable beach and the beauty make this a great area.

The area is beautiful. Scenic & quiet and the campground is on the small side. All great things. The sites however can be a bit, challenging. We had sites 8 & 14 on our family trip and both had to unhook our 19' trailers and park our cars next to them. A 5th wheel came in for our last night to spot 5 and had a real struggle finding room. Site 12 was definitely the best and most spacious spot in our loop.

Again, beautiful and a short walk down a hill to the water. Would do it again, just pick a different site.

Nice, small state campground. When we come back we will get a gravel pad or pull through site. Our site showed as grassy and partly sunny. Was mostly dirt by August and shady.
Lots to do. Not often one is able to see the ruins of a town in the US. Hiking trails were good also.
Very clean. And good roads.
A beautiful area that was a surprise for us!

We drove over here from a nearby RV park to see if we wanted to stay...and couldn't leave fast enough.

After a rather lengthy drive down a bumpy paved park road, the campground is just a grassy field of water and electrical hookups closely spaced with just enough trees to provide some shade but zero privacy between tightly packed grass sites.

If you like meeting people or want close access to your neighbors because you travel with other people, you might like this kind of park. But if your preference is for a quiet stay in a natural setting, look elsewhere.

A small Michigan State Park with a nice historical area and a campground with few amenities, but improvements are underway.

We spent one night here as a stop over between two travel days. The State Park is located approximately 30-minutes off the main East-West route in the Michigan Upper Peninsula.

The park encompasses an historic iron-ore company town that has several dozen refurbished buildings with very cool displays. We spent about two hours wandering around the park learning the history of the Great Lakes Iron Ore trade.

The park has a very nice visitor center and the rangers were excited to share their park with visitors. The campground is located about ¼ down a dirt road from the historic town area and was an easy walk and easier bike ride.

The campground is grass with gravel roads and sites. Sites were clean for Michigan State Park standards and the park was quiet. Similar to most Michigan State Parks, we had 30amp service, but no water. There were no modern bathhouses or showers, just a few pit toilets although there appeared to be a modern bathhouse under construction (this was during summer 2016). The park did NOT have a dump station when we stayed here, but again there was one under construction. There were several pull-through sites, but we had a back-in and had plenty of room to keep our rig hitched up. There are several very nice boat slips available for rent too for overnight stays.

There was a small beach area on Lake Michigan, but it was rocky--more than sufficient for the kid to splash around for an hour or two and expend some pent-up energy after our travel day.

We have AT&T phones and a Verizon hotspot, but had absolutely no cellular or WiFi signals at this campground, even with our booster.

Overall, a nice quiet campground that will be even nicer in a year or two.